Double Trouble: Business Magazines Run Same Cover Art

It’s common for celebrity weeklies to recycle the same photos of Britney’s baby in the front seat of her SUV or Paris Hilton’s latest scandalous bikini shot. One paparazzi guy snags that one great candid shot and it’s plastered over every page of every celeb and gossip title each week. In the monthly b-to-b world however, the chances that competing titles would choose the same art to feature on their covers for the same month are much slimmer–or so we thought.

Both Tooling & Production and Manufacturing Engineering magazines featured the identical image of a Joint Strike Fighter plane on their March 2006 covers in honor of their respective aerospace issues. According to Joe McKenna, editor in chief of Tooling & Production, the artwork came from tech company Lockheed-Martin.

McKenna says he and his staff sifted through dozens of images from the company before choosing the final one, and was shocked to find the art was used elsewhere. "It was surprising when my issue of Manufacturing Engineering came in and I saw the cover," he says. "What are the chances you’re going to see the exact same shot of a fighter plane? I guess coincidence does happen."

Manufacturing Engineering publisher Brian Hogan had no comment regarding the occurrence while McKenna takes the situation lightly. "Everyone knows everyone in this industry," he says, "and we keep the competition friendly."